1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-layer material which can be used for the manufacture of multi-layer tags. The multi-layer tag can be used as a standard self-adhesive label material, which can be adhered to various surfaces, or as a loop tag which can be wrapped round any object like an article, a handle, a packaging, followed by closing the loop by adhering two cold seal coating parts on the reverse side of the tag to each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
US 20050071044 describes multi-layer labels which can be separated into two labels consisting of two self-adhesive layers, so-called piggyback labels which are widely known in the industry. For example, for medical applications comparable labels are used. A typical multi-layer has the following layer assembly:                1. paper,        2. permanent self-adhesive coating,        3. release layer,        4. base material for release layer including carbonless printing function,        5. permanent self-adhesive coating,        6. release layer,        7. base material for release layer.        
For those labels the base material for the release liner (layer 4) has implemented a carbon-less function (CF/CB-coating). The advantage of those labels is that due to the carbon-less pressure sensitive printing function two labels can be created with only one printing procedure. Typing errors become impossible and two labels are created e.g. one for labeling of a pharmaceutical bottle, and the other for being adhered into patient files.
For labeling of food-containers in grocery stores cold seal coated papers as described in EP 1 159 724 are proposed. The advantage of these labels is that the tags which is applied as a loop tag could be easily adhered as well as removed after the job is done and the containers could be easily cleaned and reused. A release coating which can be imprinted with standard techniques, e.g. flexo printing or thermal transfer printing, is applied to make sure that no sticking problem occurs when the material is wound up into reels. Due to the non-blocking feature of the cold seal adhesive the tag material can be printed with standard thermal, thermal transfer or inkjet printers. The composition of those kind of tags is as follows:                1. top coating,        2. thermal sensitive coating,        3. paper layer,        4. lamination adhesive,        5. tear resistant film,        6. self-adhesive coating,        7. release liner.        
With those kind of materials the release liner is die-cut in a way that at the check-in desk at the airport only a part of the release liner is torn off from the self-adhesive coating, so that the tag can be looped around the handle in a similar way as described above. Additional self-adhesive labels, e.g., claim tags, required not by all, but many airlines can be die-cut from the thermal paper side due to the self-adhesive coating protected by the release liner.
In EP 1 159 724 a multi-layer tag for the application as baggage tags is described having the following construction:                1. top coating, having release features,        2. thermal sensitive coating,        3. paper,        4. lamination adhesive,        5. tear-resistant film,        6. lamination adhesive        7. paper,        8. cold-seal coating.In comparison to the beforehand described baggage tag the latter baggage tag is easy to handle for the user. Especially for self-check-in counters, which do become more and more popular, where passengers have to make their own check-in procedure these tags have advantages. However, additional self-adhesive labels are not available by this kind of baggage tag.        